Blooming Imperfections – Relationships in Progress

During Milan Design Week, Blooming Imperfection – Relationships in Progress transforms the Portanuova district into an urban laboratory of reflection and dialogue.

The project invites visitors to explore human relationships and to see incompleteness and mistakes as essential parts of the creative process and building authentic bonds.
Andrea Olivari’s installations – starting from a triptych depicting three human organs – interact with the urban environment and are enhanced by audio narratives from Gabriele Agostinelli. QR codes allow visitors to create personalized digital versions of the artworks, bridging physical and digital experiences.
The route also includes photo corners in Via Capelli, Piazza Gae Aulenti, and Piazza Luigi Einaudi, as well as daily talks with guests such as Alessandro Cattelan, Umberto Galimberti, and Chiara Piotto.

The Flower Bar in Piazza Alvar Aalto completes the experience with miniature floral installations, a temporary Casaburi restaurant, and a free flower bag bookable via Portanuova Milano. Furniture by Alea enhances the emotional and natural atmosphere of the project.
Blooming Imperfection encourages visitors to embrace vulnerability as a resource and to see relationships as ongoing processes, transforming fragility into opportunities for dialogue and mutual care.

The values behind Blooming Imperfection – Relationships in Progress are explored further through a series of talks organized in collaboration with Chora Media. Every day, in the agora created between Andrea Olivari’s installations in Piazza Gae Aulenti (between IBM and Pandenus), experts discuss
contemporary behavioral and relational dynamics, tackling topics such as mental wellbeing, emotional
fragility, and interpersonal communication.

TALKS PROGRAM

- Thursday, April 16 – 6:30 PM: Art That Makes Emotions Visible - Andrea Olivari, Artist and Designer – interviewed by Camilla Ferrario, author and content creator at Chora&Will

- Tuesday, April 21 – 6:30 PM: The Psychology of Tech Leaders - Riccardo Haupt, CEO of Chora&Will – interviewed by Riccardo Bassetto, co-host of Actually podcast at Chora&Will

- Wednesday, April 22 – 6:30 PM: How to Stay Human - Prof. Umberto Galimberti, psychologist, essayist, psychoanalyst, and journalist – interviewed by Silvia Bombino, Head of News Content at Chora&Will

- Thursday, April 23 – 6:30 PM: A Matter of Distance: Online Hate and New Fractures in Relationships -Chiara Piotto, journalist and host of The Essential and Nessuno Escluso at Chora&Will – interviewed by Camilla Ferrario, author and content creator for Will&Chora

- Friday, April 24 – 6:30 PM: From Living Room to Public: Chronicles of a Male Friendship Live - Giulio Incagli, Cronache di Spogliatoio – with Fontata di Trevi: Giuseppe Pastore, Fernando Siani, and Riccardo Trevisani

- Saturday, April 25 – 6:30 PM: Swipe, Match, Ghosting: How Dating Apps Taught Us to Love Wrong - Gabriele Agostinelli, Content Creator – interviewed by Ilaria Ferraresi, journalist and author at Chora&Will

- Sunday, April 26 – 6:30 PM: Online and Offline Relationships - Alessandro Cattelan, TV and radio host – interviewed by Carlo Notarpietro, political author at Chora&Will